[New Englander]

Originally Posted by thetruth

I regularly tease that fortunately my plants can't read.

To aerate or not to aerate depends on who you listen to and your budget and your soil condition.

I've not had my lawn, which is almost six years old, aerated. I know people who have in my area. Typically they run a machine over your lawn and remove soil plugs that are roughly two inches in length. I cannot fathom how that would in any way shape or form improve anything. In my OPINION, if you have someone remove those plugs, you should ask about raking in organic matter.which would or should improve our sandy, clay, alkaline soil.

You might want to go to the free lectures put on by the cooperative extension.

People are people and few will say what they do is wrong. MY OPINION-our soil is what you have. You can and should improve what you have. MY OPINION-the best thing you can do is add organic matter. For best results you need to get it into the soil.
Laying organic matter on top does little as there is nothing that will bring it into the root zone.

CRAZY-YES. I've over two years drilled 1.5 inch holes eight inches deep every 4-6 inches in my lawn. In my 5,000 sq ft lawn, I've added 4,000 lbs of composed manure.

Holy Cow